It’s important to note that T-Mobile’s 4G coverage comes with a catch. Geographic and service restrictions apply to AT&T Internet services. AT&T TV: Subject to AT&T TV terms and conditions. As with other carriers, Consumer Cellular’s unlimited plan does have limits: After you use 35 GB combined between the lines, the service warns that “your access to high speed data will be reduced, and you may experience slower speeds.” If only one or two people in a family of four use a lot of data, that shared allocation might let you get by. Which network does each cellphone company use? One T-Mobile and Verizon reseller told us that these policies had yet to yield any effects. What is net neutrality, and what does it mean for you? In general, a carrier phone — also known as a locked phone — is sold through a wireless carrier or a third-party partner of that carrier (such as Best Buy, for example). In order to determine which technology your phone carrier uses and to receive a recommendation which Mobile Repeater solution is best suited for your mobile needs please respond to the questions below. This Verizon brand—you’ll have to inspect its site closely to see confirmation of that corporate tie—offers only one plan, the $40 unlimited-on-phone Visible Plan. The biggest unknown in the industry is what effect going from four big carriers to three will have on competition. Tired of being locked down? But it isn’t the best choice for people who frequently travel outside of the US or who want unlimited data. And as with the 5 GB plan, the $70 price requires enabling automatic payments from a checking account or debit card; otherwise it’s $10 more. Not only is that a better price than other companies charge, but this reseller of AT&T and T-Mobile (it assigns you the network it thinks suits your location better, but you can override that if you want) also consistently earns some of the best customer-review scores in the business. Must purchase through Red Ventures. Some prepaid and resold services limit text messages and phone calls, so the cost of one may be slightly more or less if you use more or fewer texts and minutes, respectively. fee). There are tons of factors to consider when choosing a new carrier -- especially if you’re planning to sign a two-year contract. Fi now offers limited support for some Samsung and OnePlus models and even some iPhones. That left us with the following services to assess: For each, we computed the cost of a few typical bundles of smartphone service, setting minimal use at 1 GB of data, moderate use at 5 GB, and heavy use at 15 GB. Prices are current as of September 22, 2020. For example, free-with-your-plan media bonuses like HBO Max subscriptions can save you money on services you were going to pay for anyway but also make it harder for you to leave the service. However, switching to prepaid, where you pay for service before you use it, can be an easy way to save $10 to $20 a month or more. But the cost of signing up for those deals includes sticking with your cable service’s broadband for the duration—which is exactly why cable operators offer them. Verizon is the nation’s largest carrier by subscribers for good reason, and it is the first carrier most people should look at for a single line. May not be stackable w/other offers, credits or discounts. Some carriers throttle prepaid service to a lower speed by default, as AT&T does with Cricket. It even lets you filter by network—you can ask it for, say, only prepaid options that resell AT&T service—and location. Most of them only offer prepaid plans, while some have contracts similar to the bigger carriers. and resulting in pandemic-constrained testing in just 26 cities this year. Metro's plan costs $50, and in addition to unlimited data, … Consumer Cellular blocks mobile-hotspot use by default but enables that feature if you ask. If your usage only slightly exceeds the cap on a service’s limited-data plans—say, you use 3.25 GB in a month and your carrier offers a 3 GB plan—you should see if that plan lets you roll over unused data from months when you don’t hit your maximum. Pricing for one line plus taxes. Looking back to pre-pandemic times might give you a better sense of how your usage might look in six to nine months (we hope), and more recent bills might give you a better idea of what to expect for the months to come. All plans include unlimited talk and text. Cutting the cord, 2.0: Can your mobile device replace your home internet connection? Reward Card delivered within 3-4 weeks after redemption to customers who maintain and pay for qualifying service from installation date and through reward fulfillment. Here are the keys to unlocking your phone from a provider. © 2021 Wirecutter, Inc., A New York Times Company. This doesn't mean that you won't get cell service there, just that Opensignal can't tell you how strong your connection will be. T-Mobile Magenta comes with unlimited international texting and data—but it has pay-as-you-go rates for international calls. The 5 GB shared-data … But if you had been accustomed to in-person help at stores before the pandemic, you now have to live with support that has only ever been available via phone and online, as well as the risk of slower connections than T-Mobile’s own customers get when the network is busy. The best prepaid cell phone plans offer a compelling alternative to the long contract lifestyle that many of us are tied into. Mint Mobile is a prepaid option and boasts the lowest per-minute rates currently available. Not all speeds available in all areas. We did not, however, count deals that excluded existing customers or required trading in a phone or porting over a number. If your usage doesn’t fall into our specific categories and you sometimes think in spreadsheets, you can do your own calculations using WhistleOut’s carrier-comparison tool. T-Mobile 5G customers connected to that signal 22.5% of the time and averaged downloads of 49.2 Mbps, while Verizon 5G customers saw average downloads of 494.7 Mbps but connected to 5G only 0.4% of the time. Phone manufacturers have lagged in shipping phones that support all of those different flavors. 5G wireless has long been more forecast than fact, but over the past year it has started to become a real feature even without condensing into any one settled standard. for 12 mos when bundled after discounts. Metro uses a … Increase broadband access, says new study, Don’t get too comfy with your internet bill – when the promo ends, the price goes up. T-Mobile Coverage Map. If a plan offered a lower rate for enabling autopay or paying for a year in advance, or included loyalty discounts that cut your bill over time (a new feature at Boost Mobile and Verizon Prepaid as of summer 2020), we factored in those options. The service is marketed to seniors—with a 5% AARP discount—but the things that make it good for seniors make it good for most people, as well. We tested seven parental-control options and found that Apple Screen Time is the best for iOS users, and Google Family Link is best for Android users. Hopefully, you won’t be spending too much time contacting your phone company’s customer service department, but issues inevitably arise. But its unlimited-data subscription rates aren’t as attractive, especially for multiple lines; its capped Mobile Share Plus plans better suit most people’s needs. Consistency. For these reasons, if you’re only going to choose one network – Verizon remains the natural top choice. Both AT&T and Verizon offer particularly good deals in that category, specifically AT&T’s Mobile Share Plus 9 GB, at $60 after autopay discounts, and Verizon’s 5 GB plan recommended above. For three months of service at a time, you pay only $35 a month for 8 GB of LTE, with mobile hotspot included up to that data cap; if you pay for a year of service, the monthly cost drops to just $20. Many prepaid services are provided by smaller companies that simply resell service from one of the big carriers, so they offer coverage similar to that of the major carriers at a lower price. Excludes AT&T TV NOW. At AT&T, it’s a mix of millimeter-wave 5G (which it’s selling as “5G+”) with the same issues as Verizon, plus low-band 5G (sold as just “5G”) that isn’t much faster than AT&T’s 4G. The one area Verizon has struggled lately? You also get free texting, 25¢-per-minute calling, and the ability to use your phone in Canada or Mexico with no roaming charges, even for LTE. Coverage can vary from block to block or even building to building, so carrier coverage maps can be a good starting point only if you can zoom in to the street level—and even then they say nothing about how the network fares in busy areas. And as of early July, Mint includes T-Mobile’s growing 5G service. If you’re considering switching to a smaller MVNO, check the carriers on this list to see what kind of coverage you can expect. Data allotments on older plans may vary. We also didn’t compute the value of such media tie-in deals as T-Mobile adding a free Netflix subscription with two or more lines on an account, AT&T throwing in the $15 HBO Max service on its $85 Unlimited Elite plan, and Verizon including Apple Music or a bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ on some of its unlimited plans. As of 11/10/20. Limits: Access to one HBO Max account per AT&T account holder. Avail. The plan costs $45 a … Not every phone can connect to it. If you don’t mind going with one of the smaller carriers, Consumer Cellular has the best customer support scores by far. For the past decade or so, Verizon has topped most independent tests for coverage, reliability and speed. If you use more than 5 GB of mobile data most months, if you travel outside the US regularly, if you need 5G’s greater speed, or if you want the greatest variety of phone choices, you should consider the T-Mobile Magenta plan. For example, in addition to banning HD-video streaming and mobile-hotspot use, the $70 Start Unlimited plan may throttle your speeds “in times of congestion,” even at the start of a billing cycle before you’ve burned up any data yourself. $49.99/mo. It offers the advantage of reselling service from all three carriers, at the cost of your having to trust the company’s judgment about which network works best for you, as Prepaid Phone News editor Dennis Bournique explains in a helpful post. And at $55 for two lines—the total for its $40 10 GB plan, plus $15 for the second line—Consumer Cellular also undercuts every provider except T-Mobile, where you would have to sign up for two separate T-Mobile Connect prepaid plans. (Team Clark review) Mint Mobile: Unlimited talk, text and data for only $30 a month. Other conditions apply to all offers. w/in 75 days from reward notification mail or email date. I’ve covered the wireless industry since the late 1990s—my first guide to cell phone service, written in 1998, devoted much ink to comparing analog and digital cellular. Postpaid costs a bit more and requires decent credit to qualify, but it offers you every phone the carrier sells, usually with no-interest financing, and the service you get should match what you see in the carrier’s ads. Like Verizon, AT&T requires automatic payments for you to get its advertised prices, though you can use a credit card. To check how each carrier compares in your town, click the links below to access their coverage maps: There are more than 50 mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) available in the U.S., and all of them run on one of the main cellular networks. When you find a cheaper wireless plan and are ready to switch cell phone carriers, there are a few things you need to remember to avoid paying too much! One gigabyte a month is enough for simple emailing, web browsing, and navigation with Google Maps or Apple Maps, while 5 GB should cover frequent social media use and 15 GB is for folks who regularly play games and stream video. Learn more. Opensignal found in June 2020 that T-Mobile 5G customers connected to that signal 22.5% of the time and averaged downloads of 49.2 Mbps, while Verizon 5G customers saw average downloads of 494.7 Mbps but connected to 5G only 0.4% of the time. So although plans touted as unlimited suggest a pleasing simplicity, you should seriously consider those with a high usage cap that offer more flexibility with that data. On that front, T-Mobile is the clear leader out of the big four networks. They'll offer the deepest discounts on the hot new cell phones that have most recently been released, and they have the widest variety of deal types (BOGOs, trade-ins, etc. Some, like Net10, Red Pocket, Straight Talk and Tracfone, even let you choose which network you want access to, while others can access multiple networks. Bringing your old phone to a new network can be trickier. What it means and why it matters for your phone, Allconnect — 4 min read. Full-service carriers T-Mobile: 839; AT&T: 804; Verizon: 804; Sprint: 754; J.D. Here’s how each network graded out: Data as reported by Ookla, Root Metrics, OpenSignal, Consumer Reports. Virginia Brown — 3 min read, Terms and conditions and restrictions apply. Which wireless carriers have the best coverage? No cash access. You can use your phone’s cellular data to connect devices like a laptop or smart TV. (When you’re consulting these metrics and a carrier’s own coverage maps for your local area, don’t forget to check a network’s coverage in frequent business or vacation destinations, too.). Our cost estimates assumed that anybody using 5 GB or more a month would want to use their phone’s mobile-hotspot feature to share their LTE bandwidth at its full speed if possible, not cut back to 3G or worse as some “unlimited” plans require. This is the most reliable network in most parts of the US. Learn more about the most reliable coverage and fastest speeds from the wireless carriers in your area. AT&T also disqualifies all of its discounts except its military and veterans deal from that plan. Senior Writer, Wireless & Streaming Content, Joe oversees all things wireless and streaming for Allconnect. You must call Consumer Cellular to get a four-line plan, though, because the website allows only up to three lines. Can you keep your phone number if you switch carriers? Yes. The Bancorp Bank; Member FDIC. T-Mobile’s GSM-based network—which lets you talk and use data simultaneously, unlike Verizon’s—also now benefits from more low-frequency bands that reach farther inside buildings, historically a weakness for the carrier. It’s not bad for frequent international travelers—we like its rates and LTE roaming better than T-Mobile’s—but it offers full support only for Google’s Pixel and Nexus series of phones as well as some LG and Motorola models. mobilerepeater.co.uk. Retail support may not be an option, and phone or online support may be limited. Residents of select multi-dwelling units not eligible. Channels vary by package & billing region. It’s the only network that uses millimeter wave spectrum, which produces much faster speeds, but you generally need to be within 1,000 feet of a tower to get them. Starting in 2015, T-Mobile stepped up its game and tripled its network size, allowing the carrier to rise to the third-best network in the country. AT&T TV: AT&T TV requires high speed internet. But iPhone owners should know that getting texts from non-iPhones requires some fiddling around in settings; in addition, you don’t get iOS’s visual voicemail feature, and you can’t use a VPN. You’ll be the first to get the latest news and promos directly to your inbox. We’re not fond of Verizon’s unlimited plans, none of which (as I’ve observed elsewhere) are truly limitless. Cricket Wireless, AT&T’s prepaid brand, outranks its corporate mothership in customer-satisfaction surveys and offers much cheaper choices if you don’t need a lot of data and extras like international-roaming options. If you use roughly the 5 GB per month median, your service on Mint could cost as little as $240 per year compared with $660 on Verizon. 5G is on the rise: Is this the tech that will change everything? But its pricing doesn’t beat other providers, and its cheaper plans ban hotspot use, a tight-fisted restriction that looks increasingly archaic even for prepaid. You’re willing to read the fine print. Even if you are moving, chances are good you’ll be able to keep it if you’re going from one major carrier to another. If more data is more important to you than more coverage, the Magenta plan offers a great price for unlimited data on a strong network. Each carrier provides a strong enough signal in most areas of the United States, and with a signal booster, even the weakest signal can be amplified to top speeds. Almost every phone company in the U.S. runs on one of the “big three” wireless networks: AT&T, T-Mobile (which now includes Sprint) or Verizon. Plus, T-Mobile has the best 5G service and international plans. There are over 50 cell phone carriers in the United States. At just $15 a month—or $150 per year on its new annual discount—it’s the cheapest way to get unlimited voice and texts, and adding 1 GB of data (with hotspot support) on T-Mobile networks tacks on another $5 (or $250 a year with the annual discount). Consumer Cellular does, however, impose one up-front complication in this scenario: You have to call the company (888-345-5509) to activate service for plans with more than three lines—its site doesn’t support this option. These features may help you choose a less expensive plan. If the lowest possible bill on a good-enough network is your top priority, we recommend Mint Mobile, a newer reseller of T-Mobile’s network. Taxes may apply. All these plans include mobile-hotspot usage up to that plan cap, with no constraints on streaming-video resolution. But for these resellers to undersell the major carriers while using the same networks, the resellers make some trade-offs; similarly, the major carriers’ own prepaid plans tend to involve restrictions that their postpaid plans lack. Compatible device req’d. Your insight helps, and we’ll do our best to improve your experience. At $105 for four lines that each need 5 GB (the cost for an unlimited-data plan plus three $15 extra-line fees), Consumer Cellular is not the absolute cheapest option here. We graded 30 of the top cellphone carriers to find the best ones for every situation. They often require trading in a relatively new phone, opening a new unlimited data line and committing to a two-year contract. In the table below, we have listed the best phone plans from each carrier. Google Fi, the company’s wireless service, resells the networks of T-Mobile and the regional carrier U.S. Cellular. But some prepaid and resold services allow you to save money if you’re willing to stay within certain limits. to Internet Terms of Service at att.com/internet-terms. Verizon continues its stranglehold on the top spot for cell phone coverage, though its competitors do continue to offer comparable coverage at more affordable prices. And T-Mobile offers a wider choice of phones and delivers much better international-roaming options. Use of HBO Max is subject to its own terms and conditions, see hbomax.com/terms-of-use for details. PCMag takes a similar approach but focuses more specifically on network data speed and reliability. The company doesn’t sell phones, so you need an unlocked device, and support is available only online or over the phone. Opensignal’s network tests rely on crowdsourcing: Anyone can download the Opensignal app and run tests. You'll usually find the best cell phone deals from the major carriers (Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile). to change and may be discontinued at any time. mobilerepeater.co.uk. But the majority of people don’t, and as such, Opensignal’s data skews heavily toward densely populated, urban areas. Figure out how much talk, text, and data you’re using on average. Best Phone Plans Compared. These 8 tips cover the most critical considerations to help you limit your options and find a service provider in Canada that's likely to meet your needs. Once you’ve canceled, you can access AT&T TV through the remaining monthly period. This 5 GB plan isn’t such a great deal if you need more than one line, but we have separate advice for multiple-line scenarios. To learn more, visit att.com/hbomax. Telstra, Optus, Vodafone & many more. Allconnect is an authorized retailer to 30+ leading internet, TV and streaming service providers in the United States. The first crop of 5G phones have also been much larger and more expensive than their 4G counterparts and have often suffered from reduced battery life. We test and rate hundreds of mobile phones each year. Frequent travelers will find other bonuses in T-Mobile’s unlimited plan—or at least they will whenever travel resumes. Power Non-contract full-service carriers. Price higher in 2nd year). Power Finds, J.D. Can you get a free phone when you switch to a new carrier? In addition, like its competitors, T-Mobile reserves the right to “deprioritize” (that is, slow) your phone’s data above a certain threshold; its “soft cap” of 50 GB a month matches that of AT&T as well as Verizon’s Do More and doubles that of Verizon’s Play More. Assuming you make fewer calls than average, Ting offers flexible billing and a choice of T-Mobile and Verizon coverage. Here’s how we make money. Best Overall: T-Mobile. Call to see if you qualify. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and more. The Straight Talk prepaid brand of Tracfone, which is itself a subsidiary of the Mexican carrier América Móvil, is one of the most widely used prepaid services—thanks in part to its distribution through Walmart stores—and also does well in most customer surveys. Best cell phone providers 2021: Top rated carriers and networks 1. And you pay up front for either three, six, or 12 months—the longer the package, the better the price per month. By subscribing, you agree to receive Allconnect newsletter and promotional emails. Looking for a new phone, but on a tight budget? Mobile data is what your phone uses to connect to the internet when you’re away from a Wi-Fi connection. And you face the risk of seeing your bandwidth deprioritized behind that of T-Mobile subscribers, especially when the network is busy. As of August, 2020, Sprint no longer exists as a brand. And we don’t think anyone should get AT&T’s $65-per-month, no-hotspot-allowed Unlimited Starter option. For subscribers on its cheaper, limited-data plans, AT&T also offers business and academic discounts, plus a unique 15% discount for union members. The research firm RootMetrics, which does automated testing while driving around the country, gives T-Mobile lagging grades for voice and text use but also shows T-Mobile at a respectable and close third place for speed and data—especially in urban areas. But this comparison tool requires careful reading: Like Google searches, it shows sponsored results before organic ones. The 5 GB shared-data plan is a great value, with more than enough data for most people. $200 Reward Card for AT&T TV: Requires purchase of qualifying AT&T TVpackage (min. The best deal on a new iPhone in Canada is the iPhone XS (64GB) from Fido. See also: The best Verizon phones AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note 20, Note 20 Ultra, Galaxy A71, A51, Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, S21 Ultra, S20 FE, Galaxy Z Flip, Galaxy Z Fold2 Enter your information and get updates on popular Allconnect offers in your area. Shopping for wireless service can look a lot like buying a plane ticket: You can’t jump on the cheapest price you see, lest you wind up in Basic Economy. But at higher levels of data usage, Ting’s pricing becomes ruinous. That meant dismissing the regional carrier U.S. Cellular and the resold services of cable firms such as Comcast and Spectrum, which require subscriptions to their residential broadband to get their advertised pricing. For the most budget-conscious option, Mint also offers 3 GB of data (more than many people use) for just $15 a month on an annual term. His work has been referenced by McAfee, Fox network and more. Both Android and iOS provide estimates of your current data use that can help if you’re trying to see which of your apps use the most data, but your carrier’s website will give you a more accurate, reliable number. What to do if you drop your phone in water? RootMetrics uses cars set up with “leading Android-based smartphones for each network” to gather figures on data, talk, and text performance throughout the country. Now it offers a few standard 30-day plans. In this article, we’ll take you step-by-step through the process of changing cell phone providers and keeping your number. As analyst Jeffrey Moore advised us, data roaming, and sometimes even voice roaming, may not be included in some prepaid plans. If you’ve gone a few years since running the numbers on how your smartphone bill pairs with your smartphone usage, you should take a fresh look at your options to see if newer plans can save you money. What’s better — Switch to streaming services or bundle TV and internet? If you want unlimited calls and texts, more attentive customer service, and phone financing through your carrier, you should stick with a traditional postpaid plan, where you get a bill for service after you use it. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have all rolled out their 5G service in select areas, but we’re probably still a couple years away from the technology being as ubiquitous as 4G. At sign-up, you can choose 3 GB, 8 GB, 12 GB, or unlimited data per month. This is the most reliable network in most parts of the US. This Verizon 5 GB plan includes full-speed mobile hotspot and allows HD streaming video, albeit capped at 720p resolution on phones and 1080p on tablets. So far, Verizon has led in terms of 5G speed, while T-Mobile has the edge in coverage. AT&T’s $75 Unlimited Extra plan gives you 15 GB of hotspot use and SD video for $5 less than Verizon’s Play More and Do More unlimited rates, but that amount is also $5 more than the price for T-Mobile’s unlimited-with-hotspot plan—plus taxes and fees that T-Mobile folds into its rate. Opensignal’s crowdsourced test results give T-Mobile a commanding lead among the big three for upload speeds and have T-Mobile behind AT&T but ahead of Verizon for download speeds. We can’t justify quadrupling your account maintenance to save $5. Learn more about the top internet providers we partner with to find you the best offers. We've got your back. This page didn’t help me choose a product or service. The former Sprint subsidiary is now a Dish Network subsidiary—one part of the complicated approval architecture that allowed T-Mobile to engulf its competitor, and a change that’s supposed to lead to Dish spinning up an all-5G network. We like the creativity on display here; however, we’re not sure how many people need an unlimited-on-phone plan but see almost no need to share that bandwidth with other devices via mobile hotspot. But Cricket imposes an 8 Mbps speed limit on all but its most expensive plan, which we don’t like, and permits mobile-hotspot use only on its priciest offerings. No refunds or credits for any partial-month periods or unwatched content. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Auto-pay discounts included. The same math works for minimal usage: 3 GB a month costs $25 a month over a three-month term, $15 on a full-year deal. “All I know is that I have gotten no guarantee from TMO or Verizon that they wouldn’t deprioritize us,” Goldstein said, “but have never really been able to measure what actually happens.”. If you live in a city, you can use Opensignal’s data to check all the spots you frequent. It beats everybody else’s costs with two pricing tactics: It doesn’t sell unlimited-data service, and it doesn’t sell service for one month at a time. The wireless services some cable operators offer, based on resold network capacity from one of the big three carriers, represent their own special case. Mint’s new unlimited plan deserves extra contemplation because it includes the same usage limit as everybody else’s “unlimited” plan: a cap on mobile-hotspot usage. Just make sure you don’t cancel your old service until it’s complete. As for talk and text amounts, all of the postpaid plans from the major carriers provide unlimited calling and messaging, so in theory you don’t even have to calculate those numbers. The AT&T Visa Reward Card is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and can be used everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted in the United States, US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. When they do, it’s good to know you’ll be able to get a hold of an actual person without too much trouble. They also boast the most robust network in the country, with significantly more coverage in more places than any of their competitors (T-Mobile, AT&T).